SD Olympics: $10 billion gambit

Local committee readying presentation to USOC, public unveiling for 2024 bid

In this July 29, 2012, file photo, crew Andrew Simpson, foreground, and Iain Percy, from Great Britain, compete during the Star class Race 1 at the London Summer Olympics in Weymouth and Portland, England.
— AP

In this July 29, 2012, file photo, crew Andrew Simpson, foreground, and Iain Percy, from Great Britain, compete during the Star class Race 1 at the London Summer Olympics in Weymouth and Portland, England.
/ AP

Yes
46% (354)

No
54% (417)

Mayor Bob Filner had previously vowed to launch a bid with Tijuana and asked Vincent Mudd, the incoming chairman of the San Diego County Economic Development Corp., to lead the drive.

But Mudd said International Olympic Committee rules do not provide for such an arrangement and Tijuana instead would be included in a "megaregion" approach.

The proposal would include facilities on both sides of the border, such as Tijuana's international airport and a proposed 80,000-seat soccer stadium. Other venues would take in university athletic facilities here in San Diego.

"It's our job to show the Olympic committee how natural the Olympics is here," Mudd said. "Our story is to tell the entire world we're past all those barriers and right now are trying to work out how to improve our economy, community and megaregion."

The first goal is to get onto the U.S. Olympic Committee's short list of American cities in January. The final U.S. candidate will be chosen by the end of 2014. The IOC is expected to name the 2024 host city in 2017.

Mudd withdrew comments he made to the San Diego Business Journal last week that the USOC is sending a delegation here in the next few weeks to learn about San Diego.

"We spoke out of turn," he said, explaining that the national committee does not publicly say where and when it is visiting potential host cities, and San Diego did not want to flout Olympic rules a second time.

Still, a visit must be in the works, because Mudd said he needs to raise $2.5 million in the next few weeks to finish drawings and technical reports necessary to demonstrate to the committee that San Diego is serious about filing a bid.

Then in about two months, after which such a visit would have taken place, he wants to share the plans at a public rally at Balboa Park's Spreckels Organ Pavilion and generate public support.

Mudd said San Diego may not make the cut this time or in 2028 or 2032, but previous hosts have succeeded after several attempts.

"I think we've got a pretty good chance between 2024 and 2032 of landing this sucker," he said.

Besides the bid cost, Mudd said the IOC tells cities they should bank on spending up to $7 billion for infrastructure and $3 billion on other planning and operations over a nine-year period. Some Olympic cities have spent much more than $10 billion to build, plan and manage the games.

He contends that San Diego already has venues for as many as 22 of the 26 Summer Olympics sports; 57,000 hotel rooms when 45,000 three-star-hotel rooms are required; and a transportation network of trains, commuter and light rail lines, and freeways with reversible freeway lanes. He also spoke of a network of ferries that would transport athletes and spectators up and down the coast, skirting clogged freeway routes.